Childish Gambino’s high-tech final tour is a peak millennial fever dream

Childish Gambino is making dad jokes now. The rapper — multitalented actor Donald Glover — opened his show on Wednesday at the Wells Fargo Center saying, “I know we probably got some angry dads out here who are probably like, ‘I should be at Bruce Springsteen right now!’” referring to the concert across the street. “Well, my job is to make you forget all that.”

Now a dad himself, Childish Gambino recently began disentangling himself from the moniker he adopted in 2008 for his rap alter ego. After ending his current the “New World” tour, Glover will retire the old name because he says it doesn’t fit him anymore.

At 41, he’s still tapping into teenage feelings. “It’s a new verse with my old flow,” he raps on “Survive” from his newly released Bando Stone and the New World. “He was seventeen back in ‘01 / Now we forty-teen, havin’ no fun.”

The 2024 album is mostly the old Gambino, voicing millennial angst with emo bangers, ambitious swings, and, admittedly, some skips. He returns to pining crooner-meets-immature-potty-mouth form after six years away from the stage to focus on his acting career with buzzy shows like Atlanta and Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Bando Stone is also part of a larger forthcoming project: an postapocalyptic feature film of the same name.

This final tour — Glover says he’s taking a stage break but will keep making music — relishes in that old world of Gambino, tapping into his Obamacore era that feels especially resonant given the current political discourse this week as Barack and Michelle Obama addressed the nation, and Vice President Kamala Harris showed up in a tan suit at the Democratic National Convention.

So it’s not surprising that the crowd of some 20,000 fans wearing Gryffindor sweaters and anime T-shirts were eager to bounce to Gambino’s deep cuts. The last time he was in Philly was during his 2018 “This is America Tour.”

The night opened with Willow Smith, daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, back in her dad’s hometown to deliver a funky, soulful set that she performed barefoot, looking like a Greek goddess statue. She crooned a slowed-down, piano version of “Meet Me at Our Spot” and got playful with key changes on her popular “Wait a Minute!”

The stage quickly transformed from Willow’s classical backdrop into Gambino’s elaborate high-tech universe. He entered the arena bathed in red light and wearing a black astronaut suit (very Daft Punk), kicking off his set with the chaotic “H3@RT$ W3RE M3@NT T0 F7¥” and an impressive demonstration of his top-notch stage production. His face was projected onto a chandelier of lights as he spit verses like an unserious Wizard of Oz. (He’s lately embraced a chosen-one narrative with lyrics like “Everybody hatin’ wanna get like me / Everybody Satan and I’m G-O-D.”)

For the next two hours, he barely left the audience’s sight, except for a bait-and-switch moment when it looked like his astronaut body was on the main stage but he surprised everyone by appearing on the smaller stage. He then brought out another surprise: Philly’s own Tierra Whack, who Gambino called one of his top three favorite artists right now. “You’re lucky to have her,” he said. She performed a wobbly rendition of “Moovies,” her 2024 track yearning for better date nights.

Gambino was in a teasing mood all night, goading the crowd to test the fandom. “I don’t know if you’re real fans, though,” he repeated as he played hits like “This is America,” “3005,” and “Heartbeat.” He ratcheted up the energy with each deep cut, including a short version of his speedy 2011 rap “Freaks and Geeks,” which he hasn’t performed live in 15 years — and Philly fans knew every word.

The first time I saw him was a year after “Freaks” released, during his Camp tour stop at Sayreville, N.J.’s Starland Ballroom. The capacity was a tenth of Wells Fargo’s and Gambino was still just a nerdy rapper the same way I was still just a nerdy teenager. Now on this arena tour, he’s outgrown this phase, reminding millennials of our own age while embracing the nostalgia one last time.

He saved the bass thumping “Redbone” from 2016 for his finale, ending up on his knees in a gospel-like moment of mesmerizing lights as his devoted chorus sang along. But there was yet another test. After leaving the stage and rolling a video of production credits — leading some fans to begin walking out — Gambino returned to the stage to rock out to the Bando Stone single “Lithonia.”

The emo head banger articulates millennial feelings in 2024, encapsulating a mix of isolation, apathy, heartache, and self-deprecation. Gambino instructed the crowd to put up their middle fingers as he sang, “I did my job / I paid my dues / Love is for fools / ‘Cause nobody gives a f—.”

A full arena screaming that last expletive line sounds cliché on paper, but it provided a brief moment of unifying catharsis. Childish Gambino, fittingly, let us indulge in being a little cringe in our final goodbye.